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Appointed Representative File, Social Security Administration (SSA), Office of Disability Adjudication and Review and Deputy Commissioner for Retirement and Disability Policy

Effective date: November 6, 2009

(74 F.R. 194)

Social Security Administration

Notice of System of Records

Required by the Privacy Act of 1974; as
Amended

System Number: 60-0325

System name:
Appointed RepresentativeFile,Social Security Administration (SSA), Office of Disability
Adjudication and Review and Deputy Commissioner for Retirement and Disability
Policy.

Categories
of individuals covered by the system: This
system covers all claimants’ representatives who are currently eligible to represent
SSA claimants or have represented SSA claimants in the past at the
administrative or court level in SSA matters. A representative may be any person (e.g., attorney,
eligible direct pay non-attorney, or non-professional such as a friend,
neighbor, or minister), a firm, or other professional entity that provides representative
services, regardless of whether the representative charges or collects a fee
for providing the representational services.

Categories of records in the system: This system will contain personally
identifiable information and contact information for all appointed
representatives. For example, we collect
name (regardless of category, payment type, or representational status), date
of birth, tax identification number (TIN)/Social Security number (SSN),
representative identification number, tax mailing address, notice address,
payment address, telephone numbers (e.g., business, fax, and cell phone) and
type of representative (i.e., attorney, eligible direct pay non-attorney,
non-professional, a firm, or other professional entity).

The system will also contain
information about the representative’s legal standing and business
affiliations. For example, we collect current
bar and court information (e.g., year admitted, license number, present
standing), sanction-related information (e.g., “Disqualified or Suspended,” and
start/stop date of sanction), date the appointment was signed, termination of
service date, business affiliation information (e.g., sole proprietor or
single-member Limited Liability Company/Limited Liability partnership, partner,
or salaried employee), name and address of the firm or entity, employer
identification number (EIN) of the entity, and banking information.

The system will also maintain
relevant claimants’ SSNs.

Authority
for maintenance of the system: Sections 205, 206, 1631(d)(1) and 1631(d)(2)
of the Social Security Act, as amended, sections 6041 and 6045 of the Internal
Revenue Code, and implementing regulations at 26 CFR Part 1.

Purpose(s): Byalteringthe Appointed
Representative File system of records, we will more efficiently collect, maintain,
and use information about appointed representatives, regardless of category, payment
type, or representational status, and strengthen the overall representative
business process. We use information in
this system to verify, document, and organize information about representatives.

Routine uses
of records covered by the Appointed Representative File system of records,
including categories of users and the purposes of such uses: Routine
use disclosures are indicated below; however, we will not disclose any information
defined as “return or return information” under 26 U.S.C. 6103 of the Internal
Revenue Code (IRC), unless authorized by the IRC, the Internal Revenue Service
(IRS), or IRS regulations.

1.To
the Office of the President in response to an inquiry made at the request of
the subject of the record or a third party on that person’s behalf.

2.To
a congressional office in response to an inquiry from that office made at the
request of the subject of the record or a third party on that person’s behalf.

3.To
the IRS and to State and local government tax agencies in response to inquiries
regarding receipt of fees we paid directly starting in calendar year 2007.

4.To
the IRS to permit its auditing of our compliance with the safeguard provisions
of the IRC of 1986, as amended.

5.To
the Department of Justice (DOJ), a court, other tribunal, or another party
before such court or tribunal when:

a) SSA or any component
thereof;

b) any SSA employee in his or her official
capacity;

c)
any SSA employee in his or her
individual capacity when DOJ (or SSA when we are authorized to do so) has agreed to represent
the employee; or

(d) the
United States
, or any agency
thereof, when we determine that the litigation is likely to affect the
operations of SSA or any of its components,

is a party to litigation or has an interest in
such litigation, and we determine that the use of such records by DOJ, a court,
other tribunal, or another party before such court or tribunal is relevant and
necessary to the litigation. In each
case, however, we must determine that such disclosure is compatible with the
purpose for which we collected the records.

6.To
DOJ for:

a) investigating and prosecuting violations of
the Social Security Act to which criminal penalties attach;

b) representing the Commissioner; or

c) investigating issues of fraud
or violation of civil rights by agency officers or employees.

7.To
contractors and other Federal agencies, as necessary, to assist us in efficiently
administering our programs. We will
disclose information under this routine use only in situations in which we may
enter into a contractual or similar agreement with a third party to assist in
accomplishing an agency function relating to this system of records.

8.To
student volunteers, persons working under a personal services contract, and
others who are not technically Federal employees, when they are performing work
for us, as authorized by law, and they need access to information in our records
in order to perform their assigned duties.

9.To
Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies and private security
contractors as appropriate, information as necessary:

a)to
enable them to assure the safety of our employees and customers, the security
of our workplace, and the operation of our
facilities; or

b)to
assist investigations or prosecutions with respect to activities that affect
such safety and security or activities that disrupt the operation of our
facilities.

10.To the
General Services Administration and the National Archives and Records
Administration (NARA) under 44 U.S.C. §§ 2904 and 2906, as amended by the NARA
Act, information that is not restricted from disclosure by Federal law for their
use in conducting records management
studies.

11.To
employers to assist us in collecting debts owed by claimants’ representatives who
received an excess or erroneous representational fee payment and owe a
delinquent debt to us. Disclosure under
this routine use is authorized under the Debt Collection Improvement Act of
1966 (Pub. L. 104-134) and implemented through administrative wage garnishment
provisions of this Act. See 31
U.S.C. § 3720D.

12.To
employers of claimants’ representatives (e.g., law firms, partnerships, or
other business entities) in accordance with the requirements of sections 6041
and 6045(f) of the IRC as implemented by the IRS Regulations found at 26 CFR
1.6041-1, and as necessary for us to carry out the requirements for fee
reporting to appointed representatives.

13.To the
appropriate Federal, State, and local agencies, entities, and persons when: 1)
we suspect or confirm that the security or confidentiality of information in
this system of records has been compromised; 2) we determine that as a result
of the suspected or confirmed compromise there is a risk of harm to economic or
property interests, risk of identity theft or fraud, or harm to the security or
integrity of this system or our other systems or programs that rely upon the compromised
information; and 3) we determine that disclosing the information to such
agencies, entities, and persons is necessary to assist in our efforts to
respond to the suspected or confirmed compromise and prevent, minimize, or
remedy such harm. We will use this
routine use to respond only to those incidents involving an unintentional
release of our records.

We will disclose appointed
representative information under this routine use specifically in connection
with response and remediation efforts in the event of an unintentional release
of agency information, otherwise known as a “data security breach.” This routine use will protect the interests
of the people whose information is at risk by allowing us to take appropriate
steps to facilitate a timely and effective response to a data breach. The routine use will also help us improve our
ability to prevent, minimize, or remedy any harm that may result from a
compromise of data covered in this system of records.

Disclosure
to Consumer Reporting Agencies:

Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 552a(b)(12) of the Privacy
Act, we may disclose information to consumer reporting agencies as defined in
the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. § 1681a(f)) or the Federal Claims
Collection Act of 1966 (31 U.S.C. § 3701, et seq.), as amended. We will make the disclosure in accordance
with 31 U.S.C. § 3711(e) when authorized by sections 204(f), 808(e), or
1631(b)(4) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. §§ 404(f), 1008(e), or
1383(b)(4)). We may disclose under these
circumstances to facilitate the collection of outstanding debts owed to the Federal
government, to provide an incentive for debtors to repay delinquent Federal
government debts by making the debts part of their credit records. The information we disclose is limited to the
person’s name, address, SSN, and other information necessary to establish the
person’s identity, the amount, status, and history of the debt, and the agency
or program under which the debt arose.

Policies and
practices for storing, retrieving, accessing, retaining, and disposing of
records in the system:

Storage: We will store records in this system in paper
and electronic form.

Retrievability:
We willretrieve records by SSN, representative identification number, or
alphabetically by the person’s name.

Safeguards: We retain paper and electronic files with
personal identifiers in secure storage areas accessible only to our authorized
employees and contractors. We limit
access to data with personal identifiers from this system to only our
authorized personnel who have a need for the information when performing their
official duties.

We provide appropriate security awareness and training
annually to all our employees and contractors that include reminders about the
need to protect personally identifiable information and the criminal penalties
that apply to unauthorized access to, or disclosure of, personally identifiable
information. See 5 U.S.C. § 552a(i)(l). Furthermore, employees and contractors with
access to databases maintaining personally identifiable information must sign a
sanction document annually, acknowledging their accountability for inappropriately
accessing or disclosing such information.

Retention
and disposal: For purposes of
records management dispositions authority, we follow the
NARA and Department of Defense (DOD) 5015.2
regulations (DOD Design Criteria Standard for Electronic Records Management
Software Applications). We will destroy
paper and electronic records three years after the final action is taken.

Notification
procedures: Persons can determine if
this system contains a record about them by writing to the system manager at
the above address to verify their identity or they must certify in the request
that they are the person they claim to be and understand that the knowing and
willful request for, or acquisition of, a record pertaining to another person
under false pretenses is a criminal offense.

Persons requesting notification of records in
person should provide the same information, as well as provide an identity document,
preferably with a photograph, such as a driver's license. Persons lacking identification documents
sufficient to establish their identity must certify in writing that they are
the person they claim to be and that they understand that the knowing and
willful request for, or acquisition of, a record pertaining to another person
under false pretenses is a criminal offense.

Persons requesting notification by telephone must
verify their identity by providing identifying information that parallels the
information in the record about which they are requesting notification. If we determine that the identifying
information the person provides by telephone is insufficient, we will require
the person to submit a request in writing or in person. If a person requests information by telephone
on behalf of another person, the subject person must be on the telephone with
the requesting person and us in the same phone call. We will establish the subject person’s identity
(his or her name, SSN, address, date of birth, and place of birth, along with
one other piece of information such as mother's maiden name) and ask for his or
her consent to provide information to the requesting person. These procedures are in accordance with SSA Regulations
(20 C.F.R. §§ 401.40 and 401.45).

Record
access procedures: Same as notification
procedures. Requesters also should reasonably specify the record contents they
are seeking. These procedures are in
accordance with SSA Regulations (20 C.F.R. § 401.40(c)).

Contesting
record procedures: Same as notification procedures. Persons also should reasonably identify the
record, specify the information they are contesting, and state the corrective
action sought and the reasons for the correction with supporting justification
showing how the record is incomplete, untimely, inaccurate, or irrelevant. These procedures are in accordance with SSA
Regulations (20 C.F.R. § 401.65(a)).

Record
source categories: We obtain information covered by the Appointed Representative
File system of records from claimant
representatives and SSA records, such as the Master Beneficiary Record,
Supplemental Security Record, and Master Files of Social Security Number (SSN)
Holders and SSN Applications.

Important Information:

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The Social Security Administration (SSA) website contains links to websites not affiliated with the United States government. These may include State and Local governmental agencies, international agencies, and private entities.

SSA cannot attest to the accuracy of information provided by such websites. If we provide a link to such a website, this does not constitute an endorsement by SSA or any of its employees of the information or products presented on the non-SSA website.

Also, such websites are not within our control and may not follow the same privacy, security or accessibility policies. Once you visit such a website, you are subject to the policies of that site.